System and method for analyzing web paths

• US 8,326,986 B2
• Filed: 01/06/2012
• Issued: 12/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Capital One Services LLC (Capital One Financial Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Capital One Financial Corporation
• Inventors: Papadimitriou, Odiseas, Chhabra, Manish R.
• Primary Examiner(s): LIN, WEN TAI
• Application Number:
  US13/344,962
• Publication Number:
  US 20120110175A1
• Time in Patent Office: 333 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

A method for analyzing web page paths associated with accesses to one or more web pages associated with one or more websites is disclosed. The method includes storing, for each instance of a web page access of the one or more web pages, time of access data, page access data, and entity data. The method further includes, for each entity reflected in the storage, determining one or more web page paths traversed by the entity based at least on the time of access data and the page access data, wherein each path includes accesses to at least two web pages. The method additionally includes analyzing at least one of the one or more websites or at least one of the one or more web pages, based on the determined one or more web page paths, and providing the analysis to one or more users or software processes.

Claims

1. A method for analyzing web page paths associated with accesses to one or more web pages of one or more websites, comprising:

storing in a storage, for each instance of a web page access of the one or more web pages, time of access data reflecting a time of access associated with the instance of the web page access, page access data reflecting an identification of the web page accessed, and entity data reflecting the entity associated with the instance of the web page access;

for each entity reflected in the storage, determining one or more web page paths traversed by the entity based at least on the time of access data and the page access data, wherein each path includes accesses to at least two web pages;

analyzing, by a processor, at least one of the one or more websites or at least one of the one or more web pages to determine whether a web page of the one or more web pages was bypassed, based on the determined one or more web page paths; and

providing the analysis to one or more users or software processes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the one or more web page paths traversed by each entity further includes:

determining each web page path based on a time order of the stored time of access data.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining an average access time for each web page of the one or more web page paths; and

determining whether the one or more web pages was accessed by the entity based on the average access time for each web page of the one or more web page paths.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the page access data includes a web page code, and wherein a determined web page path includes a set of web page code data, in consecutive time order, such that the time of access difference between any two consecutive web pages reflected in the set is less than a predetermined time period.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, based on a plurality of entity accesses to the one or more websites, a plurality of web page paths traversed on the one or more websites; and

for each of the plurality of web page paths, determining a frequency of traversals of the web page path.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the frequency of traversals for each web page path of the plurality of web page paths, is determined according to a number of traversals of the web page path, or according to a percentage of the number of traversals of the web page path in relation to a number of overall web page path traversals on the one or more websites.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

analyzing the frequency of traversals of each web page path traversed on the one or more websites; and

reconfiguring at least one of the one or more websites based on the analysis.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein reconfiguring at least one of the one or more websites further includes one or more of:

changing web page references on the one or more websites;

combining contents or references from separate web pages of the one or more websites onto a common web page;

inserting one or more web page references into one or more web pages of the one or more websites; and

removing one or more web page references from one or more web pages of the one or more websites.

9. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

collecting time data reflecting an amount of time one or more entities access at least one web page of a web page path; and

based on the time data and an analysis of the determined frequency of traversals, reconfiguring at least one of the one or more websites.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein each of the web page paths reflects a set of web page accesses at the one or more websites, each set of web page accesses having the same number of web page accesses.

11. A computer system for analyzing web page paths associated with accesses to one or more web pages of one or more websites, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory having instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the operations of;

storing in a storage, for each instance of a web page access of the one or more web pages, time of access data reflecting a time of access associated with the instance of the web page access, page access data reflecting an identification of the web page accessed, and entity data reflecting the entity associated with the instance of the web page access;

for each entity reflected in the storage, determining one or more web page paths traversed by the entity based at least on the time of access data and the page access data, wherein each path includes accesses to at least two web pages;

analyzing at least one of the one or more websites or at least one of the one or more web pages to determine whether a web page of the one or more web pages was bypassed, based on the determined one or more web page paths; and

providing the analysis to one or more users or software processes.

12. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the operations performed by the processor further comprise:

determining each web page path based on a time order of the stored time of access data.

13. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the operations performed by the processor further comprise:

determining an average access time for each web page of the one or more web page paths; and

determining whether the one or more web pages was accessed by the entity based on the average access time for each web page of the one or more web page paths.

14. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the page access data includes a web page code, and wherein a determined web page path includes a set of web page code data, in consecutive time order, such that the time of access difference between any two consecutive web pages reflected in the set is less than a predetermined time period.

15. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the operations performed by the processor further comprise:

determining, based on a plurality of entity accesses to the one or more websites, a plurality of web page paths traversed on the one or more websites; and

for each of the plurality of web page paths, determining a frequency of traversals of the web page path.

16. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the frequency of traversals for each web page path of the plurality of web page paths, is determined according to a number of traversals of the web page path, or according to a percentage of the number of traversals of the web page path in relation to a number of overall web page path traversals on the one or more websites.

17. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the operations performed by the processor further comprise:

analyzing the frequency of traversals of each web page path traversed on the one or more websites; and

reconfiguring at least one of the one or more websites based on the analysis.

18. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the operations performed by the processor further comprise:

changing web page references on the one or more websites;

combining contents or references from separate web pages of the one or more websites onto a common web page;

inserting one or more web page references into one or more web pages of the one or more websites; and

removing one or more web page references from one or more web pages of the one or more websites.

19. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the operations performed by the processor further comprise:

collecting time data reflecting an amount of time one or more entities access at least one web page of a web page path; and

based on the time data and an analysis of the determined frequency of traversals, reconfiguring at least one of the one or more websites.

20. The computer system of claim 15, wherein each of the web page paths reflects a set of web page accesses at the one or more websites, each set of web page accesses having the same number of web page accesses.

21. A tangible computer-readable medium storing instructions for generating profiles for a user, the instructions operable to cause one or more processors to perform operations, comprising:

storing in a storage, for each instance of a web page access of the one or more web pages, time of access data reflecting a time of access associated with the instance of the web page access, page access data reflecting an identification of the web page accessed, and entity data reflecting the entity associated with the instance of the web page access;

for each entity reflected in the storage, determining one or more web page paths traversed by the entity based at least on the time of access data and the page access data, wherein each path includes accesses to at least two web pages;

analyzing at least one of the one or more websites or at least one of the one or more web pages to determine whether a web page of the one or more web pages was bypassed, based on the determined one or more web page paths; and

providing the analysis to one or more users or software processes.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 21, wherein the instructions are further operable to cause one or more processors to perform further operations, comprising:

determining each web page path based on a time order of the stored time of access data.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the instructions are further operable to cause one or more processors to perform further operations, comprising:

determining an average access time for each web page of the one or more web page paths; and

determining whether the one or more web pages was accessed by the entity based on the average access time for each web page of the one or more web page paths.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the page access data includes a web page code, and wherein a determined web page path includes a set of web page code data, in consecutive time order, such that the time of access difference between any two consecutive web pages reflected in the set is less than a predetermined time period.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 21, wherein the instructions are further operable to cause one or more processors to perform further operations, comprising:

determining, based on a plurality of entity accesses to the one or more websites, a plurality of web page paths traversed on the one or more websites; and

for each of the plurality of web page paths, determining a frequency of traversals of the web page path.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 25, wherein the frequency of traversals for each web page path of the plurality of web page paths, is determined according to a number of traversals of the web page path, or according to a percentage of the number of traversals of the web page path in relation to a number of overall web page path traversals on the one or more websites.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 25, wherein the instructions are further operable to cause one or more processors to perform further operations, comprising:

analyzing the frequency of traversals of each web page path traversed on the one or more websites; and

reconfiguring at least one of the one or more websites based on the analysis.

28. The computer-readable medium of claim 27, wherein the instructions are further operable to cause one or more processors to perform further operations, comprising:

changing web page references on the one or more websites;

combining contents or references from separate web pages of the one or more websites onto a common web page;

inserting one or more web page references into one or more web pages of the one or more websites; and

removing one or more web page references from one or more web pages of the one or more websites.

29. The computer-readable medium of claim 25, wherein the instructions are further operable to cause one or more processors to perform further operations, comprising:

collecting time data reflecting an amount of time one or more entities access at least one web page of a web page path; and

based on the time data and an analysis of the determined frequency of traversals, reconfiguring at least one of the one or more websites.

30. The computer-readable medium of claim 25, wherein each of the web page paths reflects a set of web page accesses at the one or more websites, each set of web page accesses having the same number of web page accesses.